Plea agreement reached in Ukiah marijuana case

A Ukiah man accused of growing and selling marijuana accepted a plea agreement Thursday in Mendocino County Superior Court that dismisses the charges and allows him to serve 90 days in jail for a violation of his probation terms.

Peter A. Richardson, 59, was arrested Feb. 7 at his home, where Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force agents found around 330 marijuana plants, according to Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster, who prosecuted the case.

Eyster offered a plea deal that reinstates the terms of the two-year summary probation Richardson was a little more than halfway through when he was arrested at his home.

Richardson, a cancer patient, juices the plants fresh under the recommendation of Dr. John Lovejoy. Richardson's Ukiah defense attorney, Keith Faulder, called Lovejoy to the witness stand as part of the affirmative defense he was putting on during the preliminary hearing. Eyster was in the middle of cross-examining Lovejoy earlier this month when the hearing was continued.

The preliminary hearing is the prosecutor's chance to show a judge enough evidence to bind over a defendant for trial on the charges against him. Faulder's defense, he told the court, was to show that the amount of marijuana Richardson had was consistent with his medical needs.

Richardson was arrested in March 2012 for possessing more than an ounce of marijuana. The court gave him 24 months of summary probation and ordered him to pay $10,750 to the Ukiah Police Department for its expenses, according to court documents.

Under the reinstated summary probation terms, Richardson can grow up to 25 plants, and each of them must bear a zip tie issued by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office to show that the plants are grown in compliance with state and local medical marijuana cultivation law.

Faulder told the court that arrangements had been made with the Sheriff's Office for Richardson to spend the 90-day sentence at home.

Tiffany Revelle can be reached at udjtr@ukiahdj.com, on Twitter @TiffanyRevelle or at 468-3523.